CPE at HUC-JIR’s Blaustein Center for Pastoral Counseling in New York

About our CPE Programs

Our CPE programs are designed for seminarians, clergy, and lay people who wish to develop and deepen their pastoral skills in a supervised setting. Students complete clinical work in a hospital or long-term care setting and engage in educational seminars with their peers. The program's educational components combine verbatim clinics, small process group, individual supervision, and educational offerings (didactics) on topics including the Neurobiology of Trauma and Empathy, Transitions of the Caregiver, Spiritual Assessment, and Cultural Competence. In addition, reflective practices are integrated into each session.

Using an action-reflection-action model of learning, students offer pastoral care to people struggling with loss, illness, and uncertainty. Together, the students reflect upon this work, build practical skills, develop their pastoral identities, and articulate theologies that grow out of their clinical work. In addition, students develop awareness and practices to sustain them as they offer compassionate pastoral care to others.

Each program combines at least 300 hours of clinical work with at least 100 hours of educational time, in accordance with the policies and procedures of the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE). For more information, please visit acpe.edu.

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion/New York is an educational placement site of The Mount Sinai Medical Center. The Mount Sinai Medical Center is an accredited site of the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE) Inc., One West Court Square, Suite 325, Decatur, GA 30030.

The Blaustein Center for Pastoral Counseling offers the following units of Clinical Pastoral Education:

Full-Time Summer CPE Unit (May 26 - August 7, 2015):

This full-time, intensive program is open to seminarians, clergy, and lay people of all faiths. Students conduct their clinical and educational work at The Mount Sinai Medical Center. They collaborate with other chaplains in the hospital’s busy Spiritual Care Department and have rich opportunities for learning in this large, urban hospital system. Students spend approximately ten hours per week engaged in educational seminars with their peers. Each student also has weekly individual supervision.

This part-time program is open to seminarians, clergy, and lay people of all faiths. Students conduct their clinical work at either The Mount Sinai Medical Center or a community-based placement. Students spend ten hours per week at their clinical site and approximately 3.5 hours per week in educational seminars. Each student also has bi-weekly individual supervision.

Components of the Blaustein Center’s CPE Programs:

CPE’s action-reflection-action learning model undergirds all of our programs, which include the following elements:

Verbatim seminars – On a rotating basis, students prepare a verbatim account of a pastoral care visit and reflect on the psychological, sociological, and theological dynamics present during the visit. These verbatims provide rich learning tools for all group members to develop pastoral care skills, expand their capacity for theological reflection, and support the student who brought the verbatim in meeting his/ her learning goals.

Interpersonal Relationships (IPR) seminars – These small process groups afford students a space in which to reflect on their communication and relationship styles, attune empathically to their peers, and explore the group dynamics that are unfolding in the here-and-now. These seminars allow students to deepen their ability to interact pastorally with others and teach replicable skills for handling small groups in many different ministry settings.

Didactics – These educational seminars combine lectures and interactive teaching styles. We draw on the expertise of HUC-JIR’s faculty as well as pastoral caregivers, clergy, and other healthcare providers in the New York City area.

Individual supervision – At the beginning of each unit, students set learning goals to guide their growth, development, and educational priorities. Individual supervision affords students the opportunity to reflect on their progress in meeting these goals and seek guidance in their pastoral work.

Reflective practices - We include time for reflective practices at each group meeting. By deepening these skills, students increase their capacity to recognize and meet their own and others' needs.

Faculty

Our CPE programs are supervised by ACPE Supervisory Candidate Rabbi Jo Hirschmann, BCC, who works under the supervision of Rabbi Nathan Goldberg, ACPE Supervisor. We bring in guest teachers from HUC-JIR’s faculty, as well as pastoral caregivers, clergy, and other healthcare providers in the New York City area.

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The HUC-JIR website is supported, in part, by the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati, the Golden Family Foundation, and the Irma L. and Abram S. Croll Center for Jewish Learning and Culture.